Ok, I finally got around to typing my journal, half by me and half by my much better of a typist wife. Thanks honey!

I will post them here again in reverse order so they appear in the correct order for the reader. That is if anyone is so inclined to bother to read it all. Please keep in mind that it is written while we were in the midst of working in these rather adverse conditions, so it tends toward the maudlin and sentimental at times.

11/14/05 - Monday
Day 1 Well here we are again. A new group of people from Boise, but the same church and the same people here in Kenner. What must it be like for these folks that call this home?

We all arrived safely into the New Orleans airport at about 1:30. We hit some pretty rough spots that they were calling “moderate” turbulence (Gerry said, “What do they call strong, when the wings fall off?”) but they were being pretty apologetic for it so they knew it was bad. I think the one thing I would change about me is how much I worry about things. It frustrates me that I can’t change and I can’t seem to just surrender it and let God change me.

It looks like we will be pretty fortunate to have only a few people here this time. It is just the seven of us and I think about seven to ten people from a Vineyard in Iowa. They are roofers and got here on Saturday so it will be interesting to see what we end up working on. I think I have been very blessed with a very capable group. I was concerned at first when I learned that it would be three men and four women (with the “hard labor” we did on the last trip) but this is a very competent group. On of the gals is a member of the Bogus ski patrol, an EMT and even a brown-belt in Kung Fu! We’ve already had some fun chatting about our martial arts experience.

I have asked everyone to pick out a scripture to share each morning as we have our devotions. We had a time of worship this evening after dinner and that was already a blessing. I have my passage picked out to share. It will be Isaiah 58:6-12 and I pray that God will make us “repairers of broken walls and restorers of streets with dwellings” as we go out to work this week.